Update 4-5-05

All right,

A light week for mail, lost, as we are, in a holiday limbo between Easter and an unusually late Passover. And there have been deaths, internationally, and distractions. So, first, a little inter-class news, then some reflection. Finally, the growing party-goers list and repeating reunion information.

From Linda Cohen Greenseid: I don't know if Jerry Bittman is aware of this, but when I was browsing this month's PBS TV magazine (channel 13 in New York), I noticed that his cousin, Mark, author of How To Cook Everything, will be featured on a Sunday series beginning April 17th at 4:30 PM. The blurb says he "goes one-on-one with some of the country's most talented chefs."

Next, from Steve Cahn, Class of '70: The new Class of '70 web site is up, and it can be viewed at: www.geocities.com/vssouth70 Ninety-six classmates are now participating, but we still have 216 more to locate.
   We've heard from more faculty members, and I'll soon formally be requesting help with treasury, activity, and other functions. Meanwhile, please stop by and visit, then e-mail your comments, including info about errors and misspellings. Thanks.

[Rich -- from me: Now that South's Class of '05 is little more than two months from graduation, I've written Liz King Giordano, Principal Stephen Lando's secretary, asking about this year's winners of the Booker Gibson and Vince Tampio scholarships. I'll let you know their names as soon as I can, and we should have their "thank you" notes and bios by midsummer. Meanwhile, if anyone is bold enough to confront the three-hour ceremony and wants to present the awards, please let me know. But first ask Booker Gibson and Robert Fiveson about the seats.]

[Rich -- more from me, some slight reflection: I was just east for my niece's bat mitzvah, and for the first time, in a group of almost two hundred people, all family and friends, I was practically the oldest one there.
   I'm the oldest of four kids and of eight first cousins. Some of our parents are still alive, but they're getting to the age where they don't get out much anymore, which is why they mainly skipped this occasion. And they're at the age where my sister, brothers, cousins, and I aren't quite sure what to do with them. Love 'em, yeah. Support 'em emotionally and let them have their independence, of course. But the image of that sweet man in Santa Monica, who lived an ideal live, then accidentally plowed into a Farmer's Market at 88, killing, I think, 10 people keeps coming back.
    At one point I said to one of my cousins that I thought our parents did a better job of helping their aging parents than we seem to be doing with ours. Maybe because our parents are older, and our shared world more technologically complex. Maybe because so many of us have moved some distance from our parents, or they've moved so far from us. Maybe because our generation seems more focused on its kids than our parents were on us: we were allowed to run free; kids today call their parents hourly, when not being shepherded to organized events. Then I thought more specifically about my family, and I realized that not only did my parents not do a better job of helping their parents in their final years, but their parents didn't do any better with my great-grandparents.
So maybe it's just a matter of -- one more time -- trying hard, doing our best, and hoping for a little luck. The men in my family seem to take that luck simply by dying in their 70s, but the women go on forever. So they're the ones I'm worried about.]

The list of people coming to the August reunion, listed alphabetically by their last names in 1965 :
Joan Aries Cleven
Barbara Blitfield Pech
Peggy Cooper Schwartz
Paul DeMartino
Teresa Donahue Calamari
Rich Eisbrouch
Ellen Epstein Silver
Robin Feit Baker
Art Halprin
Judith Hartstone
Marilyn Horowitz Goldhammer
Stuart Kandel
Ralph Kramer
Ira Mitzner
Allen Moss
Lynn Nudelman Villagran
Judy Peters Sylvan
Dennis & Benette Pizzimenti
Rachel Robinson Rizzo
Peter Rosen
Irene Saunders Goldstein
Dennis Shapiro
Danny Stellabotte
Mark Yetman

The repeating reunion information:
When: August 5th, 6th, 7th (Friday night through Sunday noon)
Where: Hilton Long Island/Huntington, 598 Broadhollow Road, Melville, New York, 11747
Cost: $100 per person
Phone Number: 631-845-1000, during daytime business hours. Ask for the Reservations Desk and mention our class reunion discount. Hotel rooms should be $129/night.
Reunion Package Includes:
Friday night cocktail party with snacks and cash bar (7:00 PM -- Midnight)
Saturday night buffet with open bar & DJ (7:00 PM -- Midnight; Dinner at 8:00)
Lobby area with cash bar available both nights to continue parties
Teachers comped for both parties
SEND: Checks to Dennis Shapiro. 495 Wateredge Avenue, Baldwin, New York, 11510. Please make them out to: VSS 40th Reunion.
Also: Since there are a limited number of Friday night hotel rooms being held, please e-mail Dennis Shapiro when you've made your reservations so he can lobby for more. His e-mail address is: dshapiro@optonline.net
The home page: http://hometown.aol.com/vssouth65

Rich